There was a time when superheroes in the cinema were much more anecdotal and many other actors and actresses lent their faces
Superhero cinema in recent years is synonymous with great box office collections. But it wasn’t always the three Chris (Hemsworth in the role of Thor, Evans in the role of Captain America and Patt in the role of Star-Lord), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) or Robert Downey Jr. (as the charismatic Iron Man) who brought these characters to life. There was a time when superheroes in the cinema were much more anecdotal and many other actors and actresses lent their faces (and muscles) at a time when a super-powerful franchise did not protect them from the box office debacle.
We want to review those other superheroes who were our idols -or not- and the actors who did not hesitate to put on tights to give them the maximum possible credibility. Some did it humorously and others completely seriously, and all of them deserve a brief reminder in this week of super premieres.
The first one we want to pay tribute to is the long-awaited Christopher Reeve, our Superman before Henry Cavill was even born and who will undoubtedly go down in history as the most beloved of our superheroes (at least for a couple of generations).
Elegant, charismatic, attractive and practically identical to the real Superman, the one from the comics; In his most remembered role of him (although we always recommend his hilarious performance in Peter Bogdanovich’s “Noises off!”) Reeve achieved a reign that lasted at least a couple of decades.
A direct consequence of the success of Superman was the launch of a series of modest replicas of the winged superhero that soon ended up on the shelves of the first video clubs. In this sense, we would like to recall the 1979 Spanish film ‘Supersonic Man’, which had not one interpreter, but two.
In this case, the director Juan Piquer Simón decided that with the mask on it did not matter if the faces changed and entrusted the roles of alter ego to Antonio Cantafora and the version with tights to José Luis Ayesterán.
Back in 1981, Disney brought us his version of the clumsy and flying superhero: we are talking about ‘Condorman’ and actor Michael Crawford.
Although it is not exactly a being with extraordinary powers but rather an ordinary mortal with a complicated suit, the truth is that it managed to overcome some really ruthless initial criticism to become a product of nostalgia for those mini productions that Disney filmed without cease and that so much accompanied a whole generation of children and not so children.
At that same time, a whole phenomenon on the small screen was released that many will still remember as the clumsy hero par excellence, The Great American Hero.
William Katt’s curls became part of the dinner table for those born in the seventies and the peculiar style of the series, in which well-meaning Martians deliver suits with superpowers to FBI agents and teachers of problematic students, whom they do not They are left with no choice but to embark on crazy adventures against evil.
The nineties brought us when a little gem of superhero cinema was almost coming to an end? that we cannot stop claiming. We talk about the amazing Mystery Men and its excellent cast of actors with absurd superpowers.
Mystery Men
Directed by Kinka Usher and based on Bob Furden’s comic of the same name, we would like to dwell on each of its super characters and the impeccable actors and actresses who played them. The universe recreated in the film is far from what Infinity War is offering us right now on the screen, but it may be a great example to revisit now that the genre is in fashion.
We have selected only a few among the incredible cast, but rest assured that we do not disown any of them. Let’s review the first character in this movie: Mr. Furious, played by Ben Stiller, claims to have superhuman strength that is only activated by his mood: he has to get angry to demonstrate it.
It goes without saying that here we see a clear origin of the famous Blue Steel look that he would later immortalize in Zoolander.
Next on the list is the always perfect William H. Macy, who has left us all speechless in his role in Shameless and here he played Sapper, who possessed the incredible ability to wield… a shovel?
With Macy it happens to us that we believe it no matter what he does, it doesn’t matter if he is the father of the most unstructured family on television or a contagious jinx for hire in Las Vegas.
But the list does not end here, it is time for a woman to make an appearance in such a masculinized genre. And who could be better than the wonderful Janeane Garofalo?
The Launcher, which is her nickname, carries the skull of her father (the deceased superhero known as the Launcher) transformed into an effective bowling ball against crime and communicates with him as well.
Hank Azaria is next on the list, playing the mysterious Blue Rajah, a fearsome fork thrower against evil.
It goes without saying that the forks, used by him, can be a great alternative against crime. We continue our journey through this great choral film to now stop at the role played by Geoffrey Rush, the main villain of this story: his role is that of Casanova Frankenstein, who, upon leaving the psychiatric hospital where he was confined, brought with him the plans of Psycho -Fraculador, a fearsome weapon with which he plans to destroy the city.
Greg Kinnear was Captain Amazing in this movie, the only more or less real superhero on this crazy list. In search of sponsors and with a millionaire alter ego, glasses protect his secret identity. Does it ring a bell?
And we close this compilation of those who, yes, were also superheroes (or supervillains) and who deserve their place in the history of this now so fashionable genre, with another of the much-needed roles in any film with self-respecting people who fly: the super professor who makes absurd super weapons, this time played by Tom Waits, no less. We hope the list continues to grow.
